Other antidepressants
If you have both hot flashes and depression, you might be able to treat both with other SSRIs and their antidepressant cousins, serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), according to ACOG.
For example, desvenlafaxine[1], a SNRI, reduced hot flashes in a 2013 study led by the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center in Charlottesville, published in the journal Menopause. The postmenopausal participants still were doing well after a year on the drug.
Other options include:
Gabapentin[2]
This medication, used for treating seizures and nerve pain in people with epilepsy, bipolar disorder and fibromyalgia, may also cool off hot flashes. In addition, it decreased disruptions in sleep, according to another 2013 University of Virginia study.
It's an "effective alternative to hormone therapy," according to ACOG, but the FDA hasn't approved it for that purpose.
Gabapentin GR, an extended-release form of the drug, was only modestly effective against hot flashes, the University of Virginia researchers found.
Doctors aren't certain how gabapentin reduces hot flashes, says Jill Rabin, M.D., co-chief of Women's Health Programs at North Shore-LIJ Health System in New York. It's thought to affect the flow of calcium in and out of cells, which plays a role in regulating body temperature, she says.
Watch out: Dizziness, headache and drowsiness were the most common side effects.
"Side effects can usually be reduced by gradual adjustment of the dose," Dr. Rabin says.
References
- ^ desvenlafaxine (www.lifescript.com)
- ^ Gabapentin (www.lifescript.com)
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